Saying goodbye to my 04

[techno]

I have a buddy who bought a Renegade Trailhawk as soon as they hit the lots. He loves the little thing and has put 40,000+ miles on it already. I think the only issue he had early on was with the door locks not working, but it got fixed quickly. It's decent offroad as long as you don't need ground clearance.

 

[jimeyster]

I love Jeeps. They ride rough, need a lot of maintenance, and are all over the road, but there's nothing like running topless in an old CJ. In addition, jeep is the common ancestor of all modern 4x4's. Having said that, I wouldn't consider a Renegade a Jeep, and you won't get the resale that you'd get in a Wrangler. A Renegade will depreciate very rapidly.

Why not look for an older, low mileage 4Runner? You won't get a warranty, but I'd bet the cost of ownership is less than the Renegade, even with a new warrenty. I was just in the market for a 'new' vehicle. I couldn't pull the trigger on 35-40k, I just cant see doing that. I finally found an 03 Runner Limited with 90K for $10900 in awesome condition. This truck has another ten years in it, at least.

 

[Legender]

Each to his own, as they say. I do hope this works for you. I had a jeep once. Started it up one morning while in the Rockies an it had a mind of it's own. Everything electronic as on and working ad not a single button/switch would stop them. Blinkers, wipers, lights... nothing. Finally had to disconnect the battery for an hour and then it returned to normal. As soon as I got back to town I sold it. Never looked back.
Good luck with your new ride and hope it delivers what you're looking for. At least you still have a Toyota.

 

[4Running335i]

We are at the point of replacing a lot if we keep driving it. Everything is just Old! Tires, hoses, ac, sparks, drums, alignment are all needing attention. Just not worth the $$$ to keep it going at this point. We've still got our 2008 so it's not like I'm abandoning runners altogether ... just getting a taste if a different brand for once.

Outside of the A/C and hoses. Those are regular upkeep costs.

 

[bob3dsf]

A guy could pay himself the car payments of a new car and keep his old car that he loves.

Then when the old car breaks, there's an account full of money to fix it with. And if nothing ever breaks, there's still an account full of cash.

If the 4Runner does everything needed and is running fine, then I have a hard time hearing the argument that buying a new car is going to be cheaper in the long run.

Absolutely.

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[bob3dsf]

I'm even of the opinion that, if the issue were a blown engine (worst case scenario type thing), then you'd be better off putting a new engine in it. Toyota's have that kind if overall reliability. No way in hell would I do that with a jeep (a classic CJ is different), or a Chevy, Ford, ram, etc....

I think the only reason I wouldn't try to fix mine would be a crash resulting in a bent frame, something like metramm mentioned....

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[mtkey1121]

That's too bad! My 04 V8 is runnin like a champ (granted, only 170k miles). I'm looking forward to many more years in it. I will say I saw a nice looking dark green 2 door Wrangler a couple weeks ago at a car lot. I don't know much about Jeeps so I stopped in to have a look. It was a 2010 4WD with a manual transmission and new BFG KO2s, but the interior looked so cheaply done compared to my T4R, which is 6 years older! Anyway... good luck with your next purchase, and do check out the Subaru Crosstrek in your research.